Supervisor Heidi Hall is working with the National Association of Counties to advocate for federal help for the loss of wildfire insurance and to get more staff on federal recreation lands.
Because of her resolution at the group’s recent conference, the association will lobby for a federal assistance backstop to replace lost fire insurance in rural, forested areas. “For example, for floods and earthquakes, there is a federal insurance pool that can kick in to help victims of those disasters when regular insurance coverage fails,” Hall said. “We believe we need something like this for wildlife disasters.”
As a result of another resolution by Hall, the association will also request more resources for recreation staff on public lands and ask federal authorities to streamline their hiring process for rangers and other personnel.
Hall made the two successful. resolutions at the association’s conference in Austin, Texas last week.
“When we try to solve big problems for Nevada County folks, problems like broadband expansion, fire insurance coverage, or more help to keep our public lands clean and safe and beautiful for recreation, we can’t do it alone,” Hall said. “This is where the National Association of Counties comes in. We attend these meetings to help our federal partners understand our rural issues, and to lobby for resources and for policy changes. To that end, this year’s NACO conference was a success for Nevada County, and counties like it.”
Hall was also appointed to positions on three of the association’s boards. She was named as one of only two California representatives to the association’s Western Interstate Region board, where she will “bring Nevada County’s rural issues at the executive level to advocate for effective situations.” She was also appointed to lead the newly formed Recreation Lands Subcommittee on the Public Lands Committee and she was reappointed to the Resiliency Action Counties Board that focuses on emergency management at the county level.